No money for sterilization victims in N. Carolina budget

June 21, 2012|Reuters

* As many as 1,800 victims still living in the state

* Critics say no amount would fix the wrongs committed

* Governor has 10 days to decide whether to veto budget

By Colleen Jenkins

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., June 21 (Reuters) - North Carolina'seffort to become the first state to compensate people subjectedto involuntary sterilizations failed when legislators passed a$20.2 billion budget on Thursday that does not include proposed$50,000 payments for each victim still alive.

The news came as a blow for the 146 verified living victimsof a decades-long, state-sanctioned eugenics program that forcedsterilizations and castrations on citizens deemed unfit to bearchildren.

"Many are angry, many of them are just distraught anddevastated," said Charmaine Fuller Cooper, executive director ofthe state-funded N.C. Justice for Sterilization VictimsFoundation. "Everyone had gotten their hopes up."

From 1929 to 1974, nearly 7,600 people, mostly women, weresterilized in North Carolina, where the eugenics program enduredlonger than similar programs in more than 30 U.S. states.

Records indicate that as many as 1,800 victims are stillliving in North Carolina.

The lump-sum payments for the survivors received supportfrom the Republican-led state House of Representatives andDemocratic Governor Beverly Perdue. But the plan did not get thebacking of Senate Republicans during budget negotiations.

Critics cited concerns about the costs and said no amount ofmoney would fix the wrongs committed by the eugenics program.

"We all agree with the fact that an apology is certainlyappropriate," said Republican state Senator Chris Carney. "But Idon't think that makes us any more sorry because we attach adollar figure to it."

Earlier this year, a state eugenics compensation task forceappointed by Perdue recommended awarding $50,000 to each of theliving victims of the sterilization program, along with apackage of mental health services.

Many of the people targeted by the program were poor,undereducated and institutionalized. While most other states'programs ended after World War Two, the peak years of NorthCarolina's program were from 1946 to 1968, leaving the statewith more living victims as a result.

As part of a campaign in recent years to identify victimsfor compensation and educate the public about the formerprogram, some of the people who were sterilized came forward andtold their stories.

The collapse of efforts to compensate them has left somevictims feeling re-victimized, Fuller Cooper said.

"It was never about money," she said. "It was aboutrestoring dignity to people who had that dignity stripped awayat a very young age."

The state budget is set to go in effect on July 1. Perduehas 10 days to decide whether she will veto it.